According to him it was the downshift that had a different feel, similar to the Holinger unit that was used before the move to a transaxle with CoTF.

"Obviously [it was the] first time driving the Xtrac gearbox, on the downshift, it feels much more like the Holinger used to," he said. "Whereas on the upshift it still feels exactly like the old one did."

Supercars' Head of Motorsport Adrian Burgess said feedback regarding the new gearbox was good, but that time will be the ultimate test of its durability.

"We're happy with the gearbox, although we've only had the one day on it with the entire field using it," he said.

"The feedback matched what we saw with the prototype gearboxes last year. We're confident that it will be a good product.

"But like everything in life we've got to give it time to prove itself. Hopefully we can get to five or seven thousand kilometres or more without teams feeling they need to go in there and crack test this, that and everything.

"With time people's confidence will grow with it and it will become part of the car that doesn't need to maintained as regularly as it did before."